Surgical instruments may use a variety of methods to control the operating speed of the instrument. For example, a powered surgical instrument used for dissecting bone or tissue may use a control lever that may be moved to increase or decrease the operating speed of the instrument.
Difficulties may arise in the control of the powered surgical instrument. Some conventional powered surgical instruments include the control lever fixed to the instrument. The control lever may be resiliently and pivotally coupled to the instrument such that a user may pivot the control lever towards the instrument to increase the operating speed, and then allow the control lever to resiliently pivot away from the instrument to decrease the operating speed. However, in some situations, the control lever may be interfered with by, for example, angled cutting attachments that are coupled to and powered by the powered surgical instrument, wires, pins, fixtures, and a variety of other obstructions known in the art. In addition, the fixed position of the control lever may result in wrist and/or hand fatigue to the user.
Therefore, what is needed is an improved control for a surgical instrument.